ChemSpec Ltd. is pleased to announce its entry into an exclusive distribution agreement with Zinc Oxide, LLC(“ZNO”)—North America’s newest zinc oxide manufacturer. ZNO, using the French Press method, produces high-quality zinc oxide materials from high grade and special high grade zinc metal, as well as from recycled zinc.

For more information, please contact Chris Wagner (email: cwagner@chemspecltd.com, Mobile: (330) 958-4316) or your respective ChemSpec sales representative. Or you may visit us at http://www.ChemSpecLtd.com.

ChemSpec has introduced a next generation physical peptizer/ process aid from Performance Additives, Sdn. This revolutionary product is named Ultraflow 440. UF 440 is a reaction blend of mixed metal soaps. UF 440 Performs well in both natural and synthetic elastomers.

UF 440 performs well to improve filler dispersion; particularly well with “white” fillers. The UF 440 overcomes “filler reticulation” to keep silica from forming secondary agglomeration during the mixing process.

UF 440 performs well in both sulfur and peroxide vulcanization, while maintaining good scorch safety and better reversion resistance.

After the final mixing process, UF 440 is designed to stabilize compound viscosity—even after several days—allowing for lower viscosity until the final production process.

UF 440 also improved rubber molding and extrusion characteristics.

Further, Ultraflow 440 is sanctioned by the FDA pursuant to 21 CFR §177.2600.

We’ve noticed, since we began distributing OCCL’s insoluble sulfur products, that some customers are using Chinese manufactured material, due to its cheap price. We strongly believe that you should consider ChemSpec’s insoluble sulfur (DS OT 20 HD & DS OT 20 HS)–even if priced higher than the competition–because of our products’ quality. This really comes down to the old adage: you get what you pay for!

Generally speaking, to be used properly in commercial manufacturing, insoluble sulfur needs to have the following characteristics:

High Thermal Stability,

High Insoluble Sulfur Content,

Controlled fineness,

Absence of any hard particles,

Low ash Content, and

Absence of any foreign particles and low Iron Content.

The above is necessary to ensure that the material does not bloom , disperses well, and there is no ingress of undesired material inside the rubber compound.

You will notice with Chinese-manufactured Insoluble Sulfur–from any supplier–that several of these parameters are likely lacking. This is the reason that no Chinese suppliers presently have Global approvals from any of the major tire manufacturers (NOTE: our product does have global approvals from the international tire producers). The processes used by Chinese producers commonly have some very basic, but serious, production issues–namely the following:

1. Production technology that cannot attain the above-described desired production parameters;

2. Production technology that cannot assure stability in the production performance parameters;

3. Their production processes do not use high grade quality stainless steel, which causes high corrosion levels and increased iron content;

5. Manual handling during some important production steps, translating into improper ingress of foreign material (our supplier’s process is automated).

Oftentimes, these failures result in, over time, the Chinese material chemically changing back to straight sulfur. So this problem is amplified if a customer is purchasing this material and having it shipped from China to another continent (i.e. North America), where the product sits for several months before being placed into a recipe.

For any further inquiries, please reach-out to us at ChemSpecLtd.com (or your respective sales representative).

Tall oil rosin / gum rosin– these are rosin based esters commonly used as natural based emulsifiers and tackifiers in adhesives, rubber, inks, cements and asphalt.

Terpenes– these products include Polyterpenes and Terpene Phenolics, commonly used as natural based tackifiers in adhesive, sealants, coatings and thermoset rubber applications. They exhibit increased adhesion in hard to bond surfaces and substrates.

ChemSpec is pleased to announce several new, high quality magnesia products. Working directly with several world-class magnesia suppliers, we are able to provide optimum grades of Magnesium Oxide (MgO) (and other magnesia products) for all of your processing requirements. ChemSpec is providing a wide range of surface area and particle size magnesia to address the needs of both the small custom mixer to the large scale blending operation.

After the development of polychloroprene, MgO became, and remains, a critical ingredient in synthetic rubber manufacturing. High quality, high surface area MgO is a key processing ingredient to provide scorch protection and acid adsorption in rubber formulations.

To meet the demanding requirements of the rubber grade MgO industry, ChemSpec has invested in its technical service resources to help customers with their conversion and processing concerns. This includes the hiring of Anthony Mariniello. Anthony, a long-time veteran of the magnesia industry, brings a wealth of experience and technical knowledge to ChemSpec. Anthony serves as ChemSpec’s Product Specialist, and is available to provide advice on various MgO technical applications (and other magnesia product applications).

MgO is used in a multitude of rubber manufacturing applications, such as a filler, an anti-scorch ingredient, as a pigment, an acid acceptor, and as a curing aid. It is also used in many other industrial manufacturing applications: plastics, glass, ceramics, steel, sugar refining, coatings, electrical, foundries, construction, etc.